It is worth reflecting back on the following article from the Daily Record given that nothing much has changed and the current emphasis in the care of the elderly is still to encourage them to contemplate their decline and death:A DRUG given to US Death Row prisoners is being used on dying old folk in Scotland's hospitals. Medics use the sedative midazolam as part of a highly controversial "pathway to death" care plan for people judged by doctors to be in the last hours of their lives.
But patients' leaders warned yesterday that the widespread use of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) in Scotland's NHS is robbing pensioners of the chance of life. They claim that, for some old folk, being put on the LCP is effectively a death sentence.
And research has found that many doctors decided to put patients on the pathway WITHOUT the consent of their loved-ones. Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association, told the Record: "The LCP can be used to bring patients' lives to a premature end.
"We have patients on our records who should be dead but are not. Their families had to fight to get them appropriate treatment. "If the relatives had not had power of attorney, it would have been 'ta ta' to the patients. And we're convinced this is only the tip of the iceberg.
"How many people's lives have been taken that should have been here today?" "We're concerned to hear about cases where patients have been given drugs used on Death Row without properly consulting the patient or their family. "Doctors are meant to save lives, not take them. If they do, that's murder."
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/health/death-row-drug-fed-to-dying-1093688
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